Double Ballot Trouble
Some Voters Given Several Copies of Ballots
As polling stations closed on the last day of voting for the Concordia Student Union election, several students have stepped forward claiming that they were given too many ballots.
“When I voted [on Wednesday], after having signed in, I was given 10 ballots—one for Arts and Science Senate candidates, one for Arts and Science Council candidates, two for Board of Governors candidates, two for CSU Executive Slates, two for the first set of referendum questions, and two for the second set of referendum questions,” said student Mihai Cristea in an e-mail to Chief Electoral Officer Oliver Cohen, campus media outlets, and the presidential candidates for Your Concordia and Action.
“When I brought it to the attention of the electoral officers present at the voting booth, they said ‘Oh, no, it’s okay, you have to fill them all,’ whereupon I strongly insisted that they made a mistake and only then did they acknowledge it, setting the extra ballots aside,” continued Cristea.
“Several other CSU members have recounted to me that they were handed extra ballots in different, seemingly random configurations.”
Among those who were given additional ballots were Jean-Francois Belanger, the current president of the Political Science Students’ Association, which has endorsed the Your Concordia slate. “Basically, I was voting at the polling station [in the lobby of the Hall building], and I got three ballots that were duplicates,” he said, identifying one of the extra ballots as that used to vote for the executive slate.
“I guess it’s a mistake, but it’s a horrible mistake to make. […] I started hearing that a few friends of mine had the same problem.” “I brought it up to Oliver Cohen, and he said he would look into it and try to make sure the [polling clerks] are more careful with this.”When reached for comment, Cohen said that he was aware of the issue, and had determined that it was a few isolated incidents. “As soon as we were informed of that, we checked every polling station,” he said.
“We made sure that we reminded all the clerks to take their time and not get things out too fast. Obviously, in high traffic areas, when you’re dealing with 500 voters, it’s quite possible that a clerk gave two [ballots] stuck together. It’s definitely not a common occurrence.”
